AN EARLDOM.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 25, 28 January 1913, Page 8

AN EARLDOM.

CLAIM BY A STATION OVERSEER

Melbourne, January 16

In an unpretentious wooden villa at Albert Park, surrounded by flowerbeds intersected by vine trellises, lives a distinguished-looking old gentleman who, according to Ids statement, is rightful Earl of Lindsay, head of the

famous Scottish family of that name. Three years ago he married the widow of the late John Close, of South Africa. For three years Mrs Bethune Lindsay remained in ignorance of her husband’s birth. Then, by some chance, she found in “Burke’s, Peerage” that Henry James Hamilton, second son of the Earl of Lindsay, born June 8, 1834, died at Marseilles on July 5, 1862, leaving no issue. Mrs Lindsay taxed her husband with Ids ancestry, and he admitted it. “For,” says Mrs Lindsay, “Henry James Hamilton did not die at Marseilles, though he came near to it. But his cousin, David Clark Bethune, has assumed—and,. according to ‘Dehrett,’ assumed without official authority'—the surname and arms of Betnune, in lieu of those of Lindsay.”

“I may,” began the claimant, interviewed to-day, “begin with the explanation that it is only a very strange series of circumstances that has caused me to break the silence of many years. To make the whole thing clear, let me say that when about 10 years of age 1 joined the Royal Navy in the capacity of midshipman. Later on, when I had risen to the rank of lieutenant, I served under my uncle, Admwiral Bethune. After a bad smash I returned to England, and a strong attachment sprang up between a little lady and myself. My family considered her beneath me, and made my life well-night unbearable. Three medical men said I would never be strong again, and to make a long story short, I came to Australia. 1 w,enfc as overseer to a neighbouring station, Cannawigra, and during my stay there I received a photograph ol my brother, the tenth Earl of Lindsay, who died in 1894.

“About the same time a gentleman named Hayes visited Australia with the object of trying to locate me, it having conic to the knowledge of my family that 1 had not died, as stated in ‘Burke’s Peerage,’ in Marseilles, in 1862. My identity was unknown to Hayes. I met him several times, and learned from him first hand about his quest. He little thought, I suppose, that I Avas the long-lost member of the family. lam an old man, and the loneliness used to affect me when I lived in GippslancL 1 could not stand it without a change, and so I came to Melbourne, ,for a holiday and stayed at a boarding-house, and among other lodgers was the lady who is now my wife. q-<, “1 never expected to marry, and even though I have a partner uoav, 1 will never have a son. . I never had any intention of publishing to the world the story of my checkered career, but for the sake of my Avife 1 have yielded reluctantly to the actual position being mad^ ( kiiOAvn..,. , “The present earl ip my cousin, but he' holds the position without official authority, I expect to leave-for England iu March, and on arrival in the Old Land Avill do my best to find old folks Avho might possibly remember me and to make rnyelf knoAvn to the remnants of my family.”

The family history of the Lindesays or Lindsays dates back to 1356. when Sir William Lindsay obtained the Barony of the Byres by chartei Royal. Upon the resignation of his brother, Sir Alexander of Glenesk, the present holder of the title, avJio is 80 years of age, has three children, the edest of Avhom, Viscount Garnock, was born in 1867, and lives at Claxton Hall, Yorkshire. ’